A perfect example is the civil lawsuit that now puts former Gov. George Pataki and more than a dozen one-time state officials on the hook for millions of dollars in possible damages. They are being sued by five sexual predators who were placed in civil confinement without a hearing after their prison sentences ended in 2005.

At the time these columns noted that the move to keep these predators off the streets was legally risky and might well lose in court. It did when the New York Court of Appeals ruled it unconstitutional because the law used to justify the detention was not designed for sexual predators.

Pataki understood the law’s weakness. Which is why, starting in 1998, he had pushed the Legislature to pass a law covering violent sexual offenders. At the time, 16 states plus the District of Columbia had such laws, and they’d been upheld by the US Supreme Court.

Six times, the GOP-controlled state Senate passed such a bill. Each time, the Silver-controlled Democratic Assembly refused to go along. So Pataki was left trying to do it on his own initiative. And now here we are, years later, with Judge Jed Rakoff, who’s presiding, ruling that “no one can argue that the initiative complied with the law. It did not.”

But Pataki was right about the danger. One of those now suing him has admitted to having molested 23 girls, including his own daughter. Which is why the plaintiffs tried, unsuccessfully, to keep details of their crimes from the jury in this case.

Sheldon Silver is not a defendant in this case. But given how he created the circumstances that led to this mess, he should be.